My 2 cents - It should be about the kids...

I took my 13yr old son out on opening day this year - Crappie fishing. We had a place to ourselves, had a great time and he caught over 25. Beats all the opening day nonsense.

The year before we tried to fish the Mill river in Hamden. Usually it's stocked well but it was tough to find any fish. After much walking and looking for both trout and a fishable bank space and then driving, parking and more walking and looking, we finally found some trout just before his short attention span reached it's end.

He caught two trout while I stayed out of his way. Within minutes, the splashing trout drew a crowd that began fishing over and around him in this little hole that was no more than 10ft wide and 12ft long. These were grown men, who you'd think would know better, than to jump into a small hole and elbow out a 12yr old kid in the process.

The year before that we went to Chatfield Hollow, the upper pond around 11AM after finding our primary spot had not been stocked at all only to find this area filled with adults and a line in the water literally, every 4ft. We looked around for a place to squeeze in but we didn't find one. We hung around hoping someone would finish up, but to no avail. We eventually left to do more diving and looking elsewhere to try and salvage the day. That spot, should be a kids and handicap only area IMHO. And do those anglers really need to fish there for 5+ hours to limit out?

My opinion, opening day should be about the kids. They should open the season a week earlier for kids under 14 and only for kids.

The negatives surrounding the opening day experience, outweight the positives in my book and once a year, it's a great example of what fishing is NOT about. However, since that's what it always looks like - that's all some people have come to know. If losing opening day would mean we would lose the once a year hacks with no regard for the fish, the river, private property or other fishermen - than I'd be more than willing to sacrifice it. Besides, while we all have to wait for the opener, we are losing out on some great fishing in the weeks just prior anyway.

The positives, like getting together with family and friends on an annual basis and any other traditions that are important, can be handled on our own - we don't really need the State of CT. to take care of that, do we?

A childrens opening day would be great !

Here is what the opening day tradition taught me from the time I was 3 until I was 12 :

It is a badge of honor to catch and kill as many trout as possable.It is even okay to limit out numerous times in a day as long as you do not keep going back to the same spot.Bragging rights are the trophy to the one whpo catches the most.

It's okay to let these trout rot in the freezer only to be thrown out 6 months later to make room in the freezer.

It is okay to crowd,elbow into a spot,it is the only way your going to be able to catch fish.

It is okay to "celabrate" opening day by getting drunk and making an a$$ of yourself.


It's okay to be rude and dissrespectfull to other anglers,almost expected.


You can always count on seeing a fight or two and it is acceptable on this one day a year.

It is okay to just bag up your trash and leave it on the bank or in the parking area ,someone else will take it away.

Luckily for me I seen the errors in the way I was taught to celebrate opening day.

I was turned off by the whole opening day/fishing thing when I was about 12.Opening day is not important to me,good sportmanship is.

Getting rid of opening day is not about people being selfish and wanting more fish for themselves ,it is just the oppisite.

It is about getting rid of all the non-sense associated with opening day(drunks,poachers,trash,over crowding),it is about making the best use of a limitied resource and spreading it out more through out the year.

I have not even fished for trout yet this season ,nor do I plan to in the near future.I will wait a month or so until all the yahoo's have given up and put there gear away until next year.

Wow what a topic to have to read through after finding it on the header for the webpage. This is another topic that could be argued both ways and no one would convince anyone else to feel differently. Personally, I don't fish much on opening day, although growing up in PA I couldn't wait for opening day to come around to go fishing. It is a little strange since there is such a small closed season.

You could argue no closed seasons for any species of fish and game. Why not have no closed deer season, but keep the same number of tags. Why not have no closed seasons on any species of fish or game?

The problem as I see it with CT trout fishing which has been pointed out many times here is that it's a put and take fishery except for a few spots. There is no advantage to abolishing opening day of trout season. The state stocks the fish with the intent that they'll be caught and removed from the lake/river. In general, you wouldn't have more fish in the areas you're fishing because there is some carrying capacity, which the DEP artificially exceeds by stocking. In the end, whatever the river or lake can support is what you'll be left with, taking out 60% in 2 weeks does nothing.

The argument about the trash on the rivers is good, but I don't see that changing. There are slob fishermen and hunters period. It's not opening day that causes people to leave their trash on the ground or get drunk and fall in the river, it's their morals and attitudes in general. If there was no opening day, and instead these same individuals got together and fished as a group at any time of year, you would have the same result in the end. There would still be the same number of worm containers in the woods, just spread out over a longer period of time.

I am definately for abolishment. Tradition seems to be the key arguement from the other side. Tradition is a good thing, sometimes, maybe. I feel tradition also leads to ignorance and does not promote an open mind or progression. A good example is a guy I used to work with, everything he beleived or did seemed based on tradition. He would only by Fords because his grandfather and father always did. He was a Catholic because his parents and grandparents were, he would only buy the same kind of jeans because he always did and so on. He did things at work because he always did them that way. We were changing / improving a lot of procedures and policies at work, he couldn't handle change and quit. After all the changes and improvements things were much better and efficient. Get the idea ?

First goes Opening Day, then maybe Christamas and Easter. For now, I guess I can just settle for opening day. I am kind of joking about the easter / xmas thing.

How is it selfish? The fish are all still stocked in the same watersjust not given a cigarette and blindfold at 6 a.m. the third Saturday in April.